Healing Scars
by WargishBoromirFan
Summary: After the Promised Day, Mei has one final stop to make on the way back to Xing, but saying goodbye to a twice-dead man in the Armstrong mansion isn't always easy.


A/N: Everything belongs to Arakawa, one way or another. Readers of her other works may recognize where the other Xingese names came from.

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><p>They'd managed to get through the window, which was a fairly impressive feat in and of itself. Then Ling opened his mouth.<p>

"Hey!" Both disheveled Xingese youngsters sitting on the sill found themselves the target of perhaps a dozen firearms. The clicks of various hammers falling into firing position neatly covered the creak of Ranfan's automail on the roof. "It's okay, she's with me," the former homunculus said, thumbing his younger half-sister and smiling innocently. The residents of this particular room of the mansion seemed unmoved. "I thought you said you had friends here," Ling Yao muttered to Mei between grinning teeth.

Mei resisted an urge to stick her tongue out at him. It wasn't ladylike behavior, and he had promised to protect her clan. He was doing this for her sake, after all. Besides, Ranfan sounded on edge up there. "You said they'd welcome you, too." Xiao Mei growled from atop the young alchemist's head, sensing her mistress's distress with Ling, the soldiers, and life in general right this moment. Ling and Ranfan were right. It was time to go home, now that the Promised Day was done. But since this last year, home was no longer just Xing and her clan anymore.

"Oh, I'm sure they will, once they recognize me. You guys remember your old pal Ling, right?" Keeping his hands above his head with a cheery wave, the boy slowly stepped down from the windowsill, revealing the gaping hole in his high-collared black shirt.

At least a couple of the Briggs soldiers lowered their weapons, though no one was holstering pistols yet. "What the hell are you doing sneaking into the Armstrong mansion?" the lieutenant in charge demanded bluntly. He hadn't changed the aim of his gun significantly.

Ling scratched sheepishly at his ponytail, and Mei dropped to the floor behind him, her kunai comfortingly in easy reach up her sleeves. "Well, we were about to head back to Xing, but we didn't bring much in the way of provisions, and my little sister wanted to say goodbye to her friend before we left Central, so…" he shrugged helplessly, ignoring Mei's look of disgust at his informality. This was not how a princess set off to say farewell to a stalwart companion. "Any chance we could continue this conversation in the kitchen?"

The lieutenant exchanged glances with his second-in-command. "Do you want to bring this up to the major?"

The warrant officer shrugged, eyeing the two unexpected visitors with only a little bit of wariness. "It's General Armstrong's house."

"And she said to coordinate things through Major Miles until she's gotten today's fallout settled." Although the calmer major in Armstrong's life hadn't yet arrived, unless he'd snuck in through some secret tunnel that even Mei hadn't heard about, he was doubtlessly on his way to Central from the moment Father had fallen.

"These two probably count as fallout," the warrant officer said, semi-automatic targeting the polished wood floor. "We've gotten a little outside help without her permission, so what's the harm in helping her help them in return without bothering the boss?"

The lieutenant opened his mouth to answer when the door behind them burst open. "What is going on in here?" the shirtless giant rumbled, but his tone warmed considerably once blue eyes caught sight of the two dark-haired teens by the open window. "Ah, the Xingese siblings! How good to see a brother and sister working in harmonious concert on the Promised Day!"

"Or we can let Major Armstrong take over," the lieutenant muttered as he stepped back, motioning for the rest of the squad to stand down. Ling lowered his arms far enough to block his chest, just in case Alex Armstrong decided more physical greetings were in order. Mei imagined her brother wished he still had the Ultimate Shield - even at peace and welcoming, the half-dressed major was a terrifying dynamo.

"Now, did you two come alone, or did you have companions with you?" Alex asked, as if they had appeared announced at the front door - not unlike what Mei had wanted to do - instead of just snuck in through the window.

"Xiao Mei, of course," Mei Chan patted the dwarf panda atop her head, who squeaked when faced with Alex Armstrong's direct blue gaze. "And Ranfan's on the roof." Her half-brother looked away from Armstrong long enough to drop the goofy smile and grant her a momentary disgusted glower. They had come to a truce, but Mei had a truce with Alphonse-sama's countrymen, as well.

"Come in; let's get you something to eat." The big, mostly bald major ushered them through the gauntlet of the Briggs squad, most of whom treated Ranfan's slightly awkward one-armed entrance with bemused tolerance. In return, the young woman never turned her masked head, though she stayed closer to Ling's heel than Mei did. "Are you planning on staying long?"

"Just long enough to say goodbye," Mei spoke quickly, not wishing to get too far on Ling's bad side. "He is here, isn't he?" That would be the last thing she needed, making all this trouble only to find out that they'd stashed him away in a corner of Central Hospital that even Dr. Marcoh hadn't been welcomed in… The kind old physician had showed her Alphonse-sama's room, and Mei hadn't been tempted to stay too long (the grouchy, overprotective bean-boy he called brother had at least a little to do with this; Mei had only given Alphonse-sama one flying tackle because she knew he needed his rest and Ed had completely overreacted,) but if all her companions were at the hospital, (Yoki was complaining of an unprecedented fainting spell caused by entirely too much stress, so Marcoh had him sit down in a nice, quiet room and wind bandages,) Mei Chan might have sent Ling and Ranfan on without her.

Their host cocked a large, blond eyebrow at her. "Who is 'he?'" From the sparkle in Alex Armstrong's eyes, he must have assumed she meant Alphonse-sama. Mei flushed despite herself.

"My friend!" she corrected him quickly, still not sure she should mention the name in front of the bears of Briggs. Come to think of it, it might not be the best idea to speak of her traveling companion around the big State Alchemist, either. Ranfan had seen General Armstrong rescue him, but he had fought Strong Arm in his time, too. Oh surely he had to be safe here, or Mei wouldn't forgive herself for leaving him behind when she first set out to Xing with Envy's jar in hand. "He let me travel all over Amestris with him, and helped me with my quest." So Ling had been the one who'd ended up with a real philosopher's stone to take home with him. After learning how they were made from Dr. Marcoh, Mei was content to let her half-brother keep it. Nevertheless, she bit her lip as she looked up (and up) to face Major Armstrong. "If I'm going home, I want to be sure that he does, too."

"Ah, I believe I know who you're talking about." Alex Armstrong nodded sagely as he led the three down a sumptuously paneled corridor, heading for the kitchens. Mei could smell something sweet and herbal brewing, alongside the bitterer scent of distilling medicine. There had been plenty of filled beds at Central Hospital, and the general probably wanted her men where she could keep an eye on their recovery…

A guilty part of Mei whispered for her to stay and assist with what she could. She'd helped that lieutenant woman when she'd decided to come back the last time, after all. Then she glanced at her drooling brother and his guard, and decided that someone sensible had to explain what had happened in Amestris to the empire, someone had to be sure that the philosopher's stone wasn't abused, and somebody had to keep Ling in line. At least until Ranfan's arm was fixed, Mei would have to be that someone.

Major Armstrong sat them down with heaping plates, remarking favorably upon the elder two teens' appetites - they were nearly as hearty as those of his illustrious clan, according to Alex Armstrong. Mei nibbled indifferently as their host made conversation, mostly with her brother - asking about their plans, informing them of the general aftermath in Central, teasing hints of their journey up to this very, very long day out of at least Ling - the food was very good, but Major Armstrong's questions left her uneasy, so Mei followed the elder Xingese girl's example and kept quiet except to discourage Ling Yao from telling everything. One would think he was stuffing his mouth too full for anything to come out, but the boy was talented. The meal mostly just seemed to give him more energy for silly theatric flourishes as he explained his journey across the desert. (Which surely had not been nearly as difficult as hers, Mei noted silently, though she did feel somewhat sorry for Ranfan and her grandfather for having to put up with their prince's antics.)

"Thank you for the meal." Mei pushed her plate away with a bow to Amstrong and his cooks once her half-brother appeared to at least be slowing down by the sixth helping. "May I see my friend while the others go over supplies with you?" It was rather late, and he'd been badly wounded. He was probably sleeping, though Ranfan had assured her that he'd been alert enough to draw her a diagram and explain what he'd accomplished with his fusion of alchemy and alkahestry, the last time the automail-armed girl had seen him. This was less reassuring when Mei realized that he'd drawn that diagram in his own blood. It had been more readily available than chalk.

Armstrong's golden mustache twitched upwards at one end. "As long as you keep things quiet and restful, I would not see the harm in it. Though I must insist upon the quiet part - dear Big Sister would not relax long enough to have her own injuries attended to until she had checked on the conditions of her men, and by the time she, ah, settled your companion in his private ward and assured his security, she was exhausted enough to fall asleep in a nearby armchair. Neither her physicians nor I had the heart to move her."

"Or the guts," Mei overheard one of the passing Briggs soldiers mutter. While many things scared Yoki, Major-General Armstrong had ranked up there with arrogant alchemists and biting homunculi, whenever Mei had spoken to him about what to expect up north.

Mei touched a finger to her lips in agreement. "I'll be a mouse," she promised. Xiao Mei peeped agreement from her own little bowl of stew and leftover bread, which had been supplemented with scraps from Mei's plate. Even the little dwarf panda had been granted a sumptuous meal by her clan's standards.

"I'll be back soon, my friends." Alex Armstrong bowed to Ling and Ranfan before guiding her through a warren of elegant rooms and hallways, nodding or saluting to more and more soldiers in Briggs uniforms as they approached the far wing of the Armstrong mansion. Yoki had spoken of the old military family's splendor, but a few of these rooms could rival something in the Imperial City of Xing. Turning one or seven more corners than Mei could quite keep track of, Major Alex Armstrong placed a finger beneath his mustache and withdrew a small brass key. Fitting it into the lock, he opened the door in front of him. "Sister?"

The only response was a boot flung with enough force to leave an imprint on his face as he reeled back from the room. "Don't interrupt my sleep for something unimportant, Alex. And put a damned shirt on."

Both Mei and her panda squeaked, despite her intentions to remain silent. "You did not come to me just to complain of a rodent problem this late at night…" the cold alto voice grumbled.

"She is not a rodent! I brought her to see her companion!" the younger Armstrong sibling protested quickly.

This earned him a silky touch of curiosity. "Brought whom?"

The girl scrambled for every least bit of poise and self-assurance she could muster while she still had the beefy major standing between her and the head of the Armstrong house. Her hands were clasped in front of her hard enough to hurt, and they still seemed to tremble. Xiao Mei was certainly shivering as the panda planted herself against Mei's leg. "Princess Mei Chan of Xing, ma'am."

"So you're that alkahestry girl, eh? Come in." Maybe the general wasn't all that scary. She had rescued Mei's friend, after all, and Mei understood the urge to throw a shoe at her brother when he was being particularly stupid. She lifted Xiao Mei and walked past Major Armstrong as he held open the door. While she understood his reasons, it didn't reassure her when the younger Armstrong sibling shut it after her.

General Olivia Armstrong, the cliff of Briggs, head of her family by force of arms, sat ramrod straight in her armchair, one hand resting lightly on the pommel of her sword. The other arm was wrapped in front of her chest, dangling in its sling. Mei suspected that the general's tightly wrapped ribs had something to do with her stiffly erect posture; despite her annoyance at her brother's half-dressed state, General Armstrong's coat had been slipped loosely about her shoulders instead of buttoned over her injuries. "Those Elric boys suggested that you had powers that no one else in this country possessed, and yet I find a homeless tramp in the middle of the Central underground whose alchemy wasn't affected by that bearded fool's schemes, either." The woman's head tilted towards the unconscious figure restrained in the bed, but Mei didn't risk looking away just yet. The general had to be teasing, but it certainly wasn't obvious from her expression or tone. "If it's all that common, I may have to turn you loose after all."

"Turn me loose?" Mei gulped, her large eyes going wide. She hadn't realized that there had been any doubt that she, Ling, and Ranfan would return safely to Xing, not now. Certainly, they had not legally immigrated into Amestris and the late dinner conversation had forcibly reminded Mei Chan that she might be imprisoned for such crimes as her half-brother had been, but the people she'd gotten to know had been so nice here… Even Edward Elric wasn't completely evil.

Concerned by her mistress's shaky grip, Xiao Mei growled at the seated woman from the safety of Mei's arms. Armstrong was unmoved. "How many people know alkahestry?"

"Well, there's me, Dr. Marcoh, Alphonse-sama, and Scar-san here," Mei involuntarily let the words flow, clutching her small panda closer, "and Mr. Hohenheim, too, I think, plus whatever Alphonse-sama knows he'll try to teach that horrible bean boy, and Dr. Marcoh taught some of the other Ishvalans at least some of what he knows, and there are lots of masters better than me back in Xing, like Aunt Kouei…" The dark-haired girl didn't dare even reach for her knives for their comforting weight; an injured she-bear of the north was merely a more easily annoyed one. Xiao Mei certainly recognized a more dangerous beast when she saw her.

The general cut her off with a light "_tch," _though the blonde woman smiled as she did so. "In that case, I'm definitely sending you home. I want the best training my troops, and you and your emperor-candidate are going to provide us with it in return for eating us out of house and home and safe passage back to Xing. You'll be back to your providence before the end of the month."

A journey of little more than two weeks certainly sounded better than Mei's grueling trek to arrive in Amestris. "Thank you, ma'am." She bowed, barely keeping the question off the sentence. "I'm sure my masters would be interested in teaching others the art of rentan-jitsu." Slowly, she glanced upwards, trying to divine the reasoning behind General Armstrong's generosity. She certainly did not seem as free with her kindness as her brother. "But ma'am? What of my friend Scar-san? He should be able to go home, too."

"Well," Armstrong tapped her blade against her remaining boot, "that depends on Scar. If he comes to and immediately starts trying to deconstruct my property or my troops, the only home he'll be returning to is that Ishvalan hell Miles waxes so poetically about. If he tries to flee without paying his dues, I will hunt him down like the rabid gutter trash he is. If he cooperates…" The blonde shrugged, readjusting her sling. "We'll see."

"I'm sure he'll see reason," Mei said optimistically, swallowing the opinion that he had already done more than enough. It wasn't her country and she didn't know what Dr. Marcoh and Yoki hadn't been willing to tell her. "May I?" the girl asked, daring to lean a little closer to the bed.

"Don't waste my time or yours. If you're going to say goodbye, say goodbye." The general nudged the man on the bed with the flat of her blade. He didn't awaken from his deeply medicated sleep, but his hand twitched reflexively at the cool of the sword metal. Without another thought, Mei raced to grab hold of it.

"It's all right, Scar-san," she whispered, taking the dark, rough hand in both of hers. Xiao Mei stepped delicately through restraints and intravenous lines and made herself at home at his shoulder. "It's over. We're going home now, and you'll get to go home, too." Mei Chan glanced back at the general. Armstrong watched her without malice, but without obvious approval, either. Beneath the fall of blonde hair, the woman's face was ice. "You don't have to fight anymore." Mei hoped this was true, at least. She was lucky to have a brother like Ling. "They're going to take good care of you, so get well soon so that I can come visit you." Mei swallowed back the awkward words tripping over one another up her throat. It wasn't as if Scar-san had said that much the last time she'd prepared to depart Amestris, but this was hardly a proper farewell, either. It felt more like insisting that Xiao Mei be good for the veterinarian when she came to check the dwarf panda for any sign of growth. "I can't wait to see your home, and to get to show you around Xing. You'll have to meet Aunt Kouei and Uncle Hanrou and Aunt Laila and all the cousins; they'd love to get to see my friends who helped restore the Chan clan's honor… Ling is going to be emperor, but he'll protect us. The Armstrongs and their new Fuhrer will do the same for you and Ishval. Nobody has to fight anymore because we're all going to help each other." Mei wished she could get some reassuring response from the general at least, if not from the sleeping Ishvalan. It would be good to see those scarred brows soften, even a fraction, for the big blocky hand within hers to exert just a hint of the power the girl knew was there and slip gently out of her grip before turning her around and sending her on her way to Xing with an avuncular push. Mei would even content herself with so much as a friendly nod of agreement from General Armstrong.

But that was what it meant to be a princess, wasn't it? Mei Chan could try to inspire people with friendly words and encouragement, but she couldn't wait for others' approval to take action. Otherwise, she'd have never survived long enough to meet Scar-san and Dr. Marcoh and Yoki and Alphonse-sama. She'd just have to earn her own encouragement from what she did. "I promise that Xiao Mei and I are going to help all we can, and I just know you will, too." Gently returning his hand to his side, not that she could move it very far with the straps, Mei fumbled to extract her panda. "Because keeping peace is even more precious than fighting for it. Then we can see each other more often." Xiao Mei securely in her arms, the Xingese girl bowed to the sleeping figure, allowing herself one deep sigh before she turned to face the general. This trip had taken more out of her than she'd realized, but that was only equivalent exchange.

"You'll leave in the morning," Armstrong informed her. "Alex can be trusted with at least the minor details concerning getting you out of the house."

Mei didn't dare contradict her, but maybe General Armstrong would prefer to have them out of her home more quickly, anyway. "Well, we were planning on leaving as soon as possible tonight. Ranfan's grandfather…" Mei trailed off. It was not really her place to speak of Fuu and his sacrifice; she'd never really known the man. Armstrong's icy blue gaze did little to embolden her, either, but the cliff of Briggs was not one to be kept waiting. "Should be buried with all honor he deserves back home," she finished tremulously.

"If you sneak out under cover of darkness, I won't stop you, but my contacts do have to sleep on occasion." Armstrong stretched her good arm with deliberate casualness, not quite hiding a grimace at the movement of her abused ribcage.

"Of course, ma'am." Mei carefully reassessed the general seated before her; maybe, even as unbreakable as she seemed, she could use a little encouragement, as well. "Maybe, since we're staying the night, then, I could take a look at some of your wounded? I'm not the best at healing, but it's one of the ways I've learned to use Rentan-jitsu," the memory of Dr. Marcoh's ruined face compelled her to admit.

"Fine by me." If Mei didn't know better, she would have thought a smile was twitching at Armstrong's lips. "Though if you plan on sneaking any more of your lot into my house in yet another night raid, however, I can't say Catherine will stop at the piano next time."


End file.
